Frankie "facts" stretch the outer limits of imagination.
Hi Buddy,
Yeah, I think they work under the theory that if you stick in enough lies, people won't be able to sort them all out. Note this one:
"GM AND FORD spend $250,000,000 just to change parts on a 100 year old engine and take 3 to 5 years to bring that change to market. Look at that by comparison. Just my facts to consider."
Wow! "Just my facts to consider." Let's think about that statement. "Just my facts to consider." One hundred years ago, Ford had been producing the Model T for something like ten years. So, according to their "facts", Ford is making a minor modification to the Model T engine... I was going to say that GM was doing the same with the 1918 Chevy engine, but then I realized she said Ford and GM spent a fortune just to change parts on a 100 year old engine. That was so outrageous is didn't even register at first. So....now Cyclone is claiming that Ford and GM build the same engine. Yeah, funny how the auto magazines, along with GM and Ford management, seem to have missed that one. Just more Frankie "facts".
It gets just as ridiculous if she was trying to claim they each spent that sum on 100 year old engines; what are the odds each company would do exactly the same work at the same time? Moreover, what are the odds the cost would be identical in both cases? Even more incredible, what are the odds that both companies would tell Frankie how they spend their Research and Development money? Yeah, the whole statement is just that stupid. If you're going to make up "facts", you should at least try to make them sound like you weren't simply yanking them out of air.
To compound the stupidity, which is already massive, she's implying that any development of internal combustion is much less difficult than developing a steam engine because gasoline engines have been around so long. HUH! Steam engines are more than 100 years older than gasoline engines, so by Frankie's "logic", it should be that much simpler for Cyclone to develop an engine. But she's implying that they have the much tougher job. Once again, Frankie "facts" prove a contradiction in terms.
Now Frankie is claiming that Cyclone's big mistake was being under-capitalized for the massive R and D job they undertook. Here's where Frankie "facts" get a workout. Remember when Cyclone claimed it had solved all the problems associated with their engine? They stated that as a "fact". If that had been a fact, they would have indeed proven to have had enough money for product development. You can't reconcile the two "facts"; for one to be the truth, the other must be a lie.
The undercapitalized argument is relatively new. For years Cyclone has been talking about their dyno tests, engine efficiency, simplicity to manufacture, superior performance, imminent leap into production and other claims too numerous to readily recount. All of these have been presented as "facts". Now we are supposed to admire them for how far they have come against impossible odds, although the admission that they are struggling to make the project work proves all their previous "facts" to be false.
What really offends me is the unforgiveable arrogance. They pretty blatantly portrayed themselves as being much more insightful than other engineers and made a number of fairly specific claims in terms of "facts". Generally speaking, these claims are proven non-factual by Cyclone's own later claims. Anyone with a degree of modesty would be admitting fault for misleading so many people, so often. Not our heroes, however. Instead they portray themselves as David versus Goliath and make not the slightest apology for an unceasing campaign of misinformation. It isn't as if they have even admitted attempts to mislead in an indirect manner... as you note, their latest partnership is described (like so many others) as an "industry leader", although they are working from a rented mailbox in a UPS store.
If anything, you have to marvel at the utter consistency in their inability to even concoct a semi-plausible "fact". It's not often you see someone repeat the same mistake so faithfully and repeatedly. So many "partners" described as industry leaders of one sort or another were easily proven to be working out of personal homes, have less than a dozen employees, work on really trivial government contracts and so on. After getting caught in this kind of misstatement of "fact" so very often, you'd think they'd attempt to make a stab at constructing a semi-plausible background for the latest "partner". I guess constructing convincing press releases is as challenging as constructing steam engines that live up to company hype.
Oh yeah. They ought to hire someone capable of writing at a high school graduate level to produce their public announcements. Capitalizing words randomly in the middle of sentences and leaving out even the most basic punctuation doesn't project the air of professionalism to which they constantly aspire.
